Pumps

Mayor Jamie Mayo and the Monroe City Council join officials with Ouachita Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to urge residents of Monroe and all of Ouachita Parish to prepare for potential heavy rainfall related to Tropical Depression Harvey, which is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.

The controversy over how the pumps operated in the city of New Orleans during the weekend flooding event is not over. The city council called a meeting just before Sewerage & Water Board Executive Director Cedric Grant announced his retirement saying he’d learned his staff hadn’t been honest about the event. The board’s Superintendent, Joe Becker, said that the system is not designed to handle that much rain in a short period of time.

Some New Orleans officials say they're not satisfied with the city's response to weekend flooding, after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the city's pump stations

. Local news media report Council President Jason Williams says the council will meet Tuesday to seek answers about the pumping system. Some neighborhoods saw between 8 and 10 inches (20 and 25 centimeters) of rain over a few hours Saturday. City officials said that was too much for the Sewerage & Water Board's 24 pump stations to cope with even though all were operating.